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Statistics show that women earn 77 cents for each dollar earned by men
(Kurtzleben). Still to this day, women continue to be paid less than men and are wrongly
treated in the workplace. In any field, there is a pay gap between genders, favoring
against women. Additionally, select companies have dealt with lawsuits over gender
discrimination. As a result, the government has attempted to fix the problem, but for now
the AAUW, the American Association of University Women that fights for womens
rights, is looking for a solution (Corbett). With women being treated unfairly in the
workforce based solely on their gender, change is necessary in order for women to have
the equality they deserve throughout their career aspirations.
The pay gap or wage gap can be defined as the difference of average incomes
between genders and is found using ratios between the two with equal numbers of full
time workers. Data for the pay gap is found from conducting surveys of individuals,
homes, and businesses in order to gather information on salaries and earnings. The
weekly median pay gaps are actually the median pay gaps collected from the previous
year. Typically, January is the informing date for the pay gaps from the past September
(Corbett 5; 6).
When considering multiple variables, the 23 percent gap isn't the same under
specific conditions. One study showed that 40 percent of mothers took on part time shifts
or took off work, while 3 percent of fathers were working part time or took off. Upon
returning to work, mothers are faced with a "motherhood penalty," less pay and chances
of getting hired. On the contrary, there is no "fatherhood penalty." State pay gaps are also
calculated, and Washington, D.C., had the smallest gap in 2012, with women making 90

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percent of men's earnings. As a contrast, Wyoming came in as the worst state of pay
equity with women's incomes being only 64 percent of men's (Corbett 9; 6)
Life choices such as college major and jobs can have giant impacts on the wage
gaps as well. For example, men and women still tend to gravitate towards different kinds
of jobs; conversely, this is significantly lessened from that of 40 years ago, as a result of
more females entering into what are typically seen as male jobs. Those of which, pay
better than jobs traditionally associated with women. In 2012, around 40 percent of
female workers had jobs that were better known as female occupations: nursing, teaching,
and social work. While only 5 percent of male workers did these jobs. On the other hand,
45 percent of men had stereotypical male jobs like aerospace engineering, computer
programming, and firefighting, and fewer than 6 percent of women had these jobs. The
removal of "occupational gender segregation" is one explanation as to why the salaries of
women are rising, but this is not enough change to eradicate the wage gap completely, for
the women in "male" jobs face a pay gap from the male co-workers salaries too (Corbett
8; 15; 16).
Additionally, researchers compare women's pay of all races to that of white men
to find an overall race/ethnicity standpoint on pay gap. This is due to the fact that white
men make up the majority of the American workforce. Sadly, Latina and Hispanic
women have the worst pay gap of 53 percent of white males paychecks. Interestingly,
statistics show that Asian women have the smallest pay gap in contrast with white men,
ranking at 87 percent of white males' salaries. That is ten cents more for each dollar
earned by a male than the earnings of white women (Corbett 11).

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Over the years as salaries increase, the pay gap does as well. Female full time
workers of ages 20-24 earned 93 percent of what male workers earned weekly in 2011.
Until around the age of 35, most women make nearly 90 percent of what men make, and
after that, the percentage stays between 75-80 percent. Furthermore, men and women
with more years of education get more pay. Nevertheless, no matter the amount of
education, the median paychecks of women are always less than men's, and higher
education is where the highest pay gaps are (Corbett 12; 13; 14).
All in all, when considering several factors, such as GPA, hours worked, age,
occupation, geographical region, college major, and marital status, certain aspects of the
pay gap are unexplainable. Researchers discovered a 7 percent difference in pay between
men and women who had previously graduated from college that had no distinct
reasoning. Another organization uncovered a 12 percent gap from full-time workers who
graduated from college 10 years previous. Researchers have even declared that the gap
isn't completely from womens choices either (Corbett 8).
Frankly, it would seem that employers would realize that not providing equal pay
for equal work is an abomination of legal and ethical rights, yet companies continue to
break these rules. Many companies have gone to court to dispute accusations of
discrimination on the job: Home Depot, Smith Barney, and Novartis. As a result, the
cases cost them millions. Another was Wal-Mart, which spent billions to fight off a case,
which would've turned out to be "the largest class-action lawsuit in history" (Corbett 18).
In the events leading to the Wal-Mart lawsuit, a meeting was held for Wal-Mart's
female employees to discuss pay issues with the male managers. One manager said, "Men
are working as the heads of their households, while women are just working for the sake

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of working." This made another manager laugh. Over a hundred of current and former
female employees at Wal-Mart sent messages to the federal court about their claims:
addressing Wal-Mart for discrimination, paying less, and offering fewer promotions to
women. As a result, 34 civil rights organizations, including the National Women's Law
Center, backed the women as the case went to the Supreme Court (Women).
The women were required to prove that the discrimination had commonalities
throughout the United States. They found the stereotypes to be the managers'
justifications for paying women less. For one example, a manager uttered, "Men are here
to make a career and women aren't. Retail is for housewives who just need to earn extra
money." Another woman also shared a statement that her manager told to her: "Those
girls don't need any more money; they make enough as it is" (Women).
More stereotypes from Wal-Mart involved women being mothers. An employee
overheard one of the men say that all women need to be "at home with a bun in the oven"
and "barefoot and pregnant." In addition, an employee reported that a senior manager said
that she "should raise a family and stay in the kitchen" and not have a career. To no avail,
her supervisor suggested that she just "shrug it off and have thick skin." Upon hearing
this, courts found this denial of equality to be a violation of civil rights (Women).
The women without families were not excluded from the rude comments. A
worker was told by her district manager that she should resign from her position of
assistant manager and "find a husband to settle down with and have children to relieve"
her "work-related stress." One woman's managers assumed that she wouldn't "want to be
in the Management Training Program" because it would require her children to move.
Assuming women are unable to be productive in supervisory position on the basis that

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they have obligated duties toward parenting that will get in the way of their working
habits is called "family responsibility discrimination," and courts consider this to be
illegal sex discrimination (Women).
The women at Wal-Mart were also denied the working in certain areas of the store
that sold products supposedly only for men. A manager asked, "You're a girl, why do you
want to work in hardware?" Another woman made a request to work in the sporting
goods section, but she didn't receive the promotion because the manager thought she
wouldn't "want to work with guns." One manager's opinion was that a woman couldn't
work in the electronics section because it's "a man's job" that requires "a lot of heavy
lifting." These frustrating comments from Wal-Mart managers declaring their
unintelligent reasons behind the sexist opinions about the female workers are only a small
amount of the nation's many occurrences of gender discrimination (Women).
Ever since 1913, the fight for gender based pay equality has been lead forward by
the AAUW. The members of AAUW were witnesses in the Oval Office as President John
F. Kennedy penned his signature onto the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Yet, 50 years have
passed, and the struggle for policies and legislation needed for equality of salaries
between genders is still in the works. Solving this pay issue is the main concern and goal
for the AAUW and will remain their center of focus until a solution arises for creating a
requirement of fair pair for fair work (Corbett 2).
The work of AAUW includes the Paycheck Fairness Act that would've provided
women equal pay protections, but it eventually failed in the House and Senate during the
summer of 2012 (Corbett 2). The act was just two shy of the needed 60 votes to defeat a
filibuster and pass the bill. Had the Paycheck Fairness Act passed, it would have

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improved greatly upon the failed Equal Pay Act of 1963. Due to limited enforcement
tools and insufficient solutions, the Equal Pay Act never followed out its promise of
closing the pay gap by requiring men and women to get "equal pay for equal work" (A
Sad Day).
Although the bill failed due to a gridlock in Senate, it wasn't because people
disagreed with it. A poll of the following registered voters: Republicans, Democrats, and
Independents ended with 84 percent supporting it. Also, the Paycheck Fairness Act had
already passed in the House of Representatives in 2009, and the reps were unwavering
throughout the entirety of legislation. Even with an incredibly large supporting
conglomeration of multiple powerful people backing the act, it failed due to a procedural
vote (A Sad Day).
Decades of unjust discrimination could've been eradicated in the passing of the
Paycheck Fairness Act if it weren't for the Senate's impractical response to a needed bill,
causing a major setback to the road of improvement of the 21st century, modern day,
hard-working, American women. Regardless, make no mistake; this isn't an indefinite
sign to give up, but rather an inspiration to fight onward with steady force that will not be
knocked down again. The stakes, rising each day as the economy proceeds in sinking
further and further, are not to be ignored. Voices shall rise in effort to be heard as
Congressional allies remain by the sides of advocates that show no means of retreat from
the battle for their cause. Even President Obama backs this cause with his honest words
of support, "My administration will continue to fight for a woman's right to equal pay for
equal work" (A Sad Day).

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Some may argue that women are progressively earning larger salaries than past
years due to the number of women with six figure incomes increasing at faster rate than
for men. Nearly one full time working woman for every 18 earned at least $100,000 in
2009, which was a 14 percent jump from two years ago. However, one in seven males
earns six figure incomes, which is better even with a smaller increase of four percent. On
the other hand, the one in 18 women earning $100,000 or more only accounts for six
percent of working women. In contrast, around 14 percent of men in the workforce make
six figure incomes. In the end, women are still falling short which doesn't seem like much
of an improvement (The Fight).
Moreover, research found that women in higher positions such as chief
executives, lawyers, doctors, and surgeons receive less money for the same work. On
average, more women have higher education than men with more Master's degrees and
PhDs. In addition, women make up a larger percent of law students and half of medical
students. With women receiving more advanced degrees and entering high-income fields,
the fact that more men have six figure incomes doesn't make sense (The Fight).
Overall, America has fought cases of discrimination and attempted to create laws
that would've speeded up the progress in achieving equality, but the obviously necessary
actions towards providing equality for woman haven't been accomplished and should've
been done ages ago. In spite of the halting advancement of women's government rights,
more women are continually succeeding in their aspirations of entering the jobs they so
desire, despite the setbacks of lower pay. Also, more action is being taken to monitor
gender discrimination, as a result of previous occasions when such issues were publically
brought forth (Corbett 20). Nonetheless, the AAUW is not giving up, nor should anyone,
in the efforts of eradicating the pay gap for good. Women shall soon receive their
additional, well deserved 23 cents.